Paris: Thales Introduces Future Cockpit Avionics Concept

Thales introduced the international aviation community to its future cockpit avionics concept on the first day of the Paris Air Show, the "Avionics 2020" cockpit.

(Thales 2020 Avionics Cockpit. Photo, courtesy of Thales.)

The cockpit is evolved from the one display for a cockpit interactive solution (ODICIS) demonstrator that Thales unveiled at the 2011 Paris Air Show. Avionics 2020 is a next-generation cockpit with customization options for airlines and operators, touchscreen displays with NextGen and Sesar functionality and a feature that allows pilots to adjust aircraft takeoff and climb profile for optimal CO2 emissions and fuel burn.

Also included in the 2020 cockpit are I4D operations, which allow pilots to better sequence air traffic with time constraints at metering point to each aircraft converging to a certain point, and digital-taxi functionality, enabling real-time uplink of taxi routes with controller-pilot data link communications (CPDLC).

Pilots will also be able to drag data across cockpit displays with the touchscreen functionality, and can use the cockpit's Airborne Separation Assistance Systems (ASAS) to adjust aircraft speed relevant to spacing for other nearby aircraft. The displays merge data from the aircraft's most critical avionics and non-avionics systems, similar to the merge capabilities of some the latest fighter jet cockpits, such as the French Rafale fighter cockpit, which was also designed by Thales.

"We are showing the world that a cockpit designed around more seamless interaction between the pilot and the electronics is no longer a purely intellectual concept, but a viable commercial application which, as more and more functionalities and tasks are added to a pilot’s workload, will become essential for the future of air transport," said Denis Bonnet, head of innovation for the cockpit competence center at Thales.